30-Second Overview: Martial law was lifted on July 15, 1987, ending the 38-year martial law regime. Taiwan literature immediately entered a period of explosion, with taboo topics suddenly解禁 from political novels to female writing to indigenous literature. However, the real contradiction is this: while gaining creative freedom, literature also began to face the double-edged sword of market mechanisms — commercial publishing brought more readers, but also diluted the purity of literature. This is the most complex transitional period in Taiwan literature.
On the midnight of July 15, 1987, Chiang Ching-kuo announced the lifting of martial law1. Peng Renjin, editor-in-chief of Literary World magazine, sat in the editorial office, facing a stack of political novels that had been banned and rejected2. For 38 years, these works accusing authoritarianism and reflecting on history could only wait in drawers. That night, these suppressed voices could finally see the light.
But Peng Renjin did not expect that the real challenge was just beginning. Martial law lifting opened creative freedom, but also introduced unprecedented commercial competition. When political taboos disappeared, literary works had to compete for readers' attention in an open market. The most complex transitional period in Taiwan literature history thus unfolded.
Political Liberalization: The Explosion of Suppressed Voices
Literary Reckoning of the White Terror
The first wave of literature after the lifting of martial law was a collective memory and reckoning of the White Terror. Long-banned political issues suddenly gained space for expression, and writers seemed to want to finish forty years of silence in one breath.
Lan Bozhou's reportage Song of the Hackney Carriage (1991) became a classic of this type of writing. This book recorded the story of musician Lu Hsi-jo and his comrades who were shot dead in the 1950s due to left-wing political beliefs. Lan Bozhou spent five years visiting victims' families and consulting archives to reconstruct the historical scene that had been deliberately forgotten.
A detail in the book is impressive: Lu Hsi-jo's widow, Zhang Caixia, said that after her husband was taken away, even playing the songs he composed at home became a "dangerous behavior." "We dared not cry, dared not speak, and even had to secretly miss him." This sentence accurately summarized the devastation of the White Terror on the mind.
Before the lifting of martial law, such stories could not be published. After the lifting, Song of the Hackney Carriage was very popular in Taiwan, inspiring a series of White Terror literary creations. Works such as Chen Yingzhen's Mountain Road (1983, reprinted after martial law lifting) and Yang Zhao's Dark Alley迷夜 (1990) were all digging into this covered history.
The Reappearance of the Literature of the February 28 Incident
The February 28 Incident, more sensitive than the White Terror, gradually entered the field of literary writing after the lifting of martial law. Li Qiao's novel Buried Grievance 1947 Buried Grievance (1995) is set against the background of the February 28 Incident, describing the tragedy of a local family.
A more important breakthrough was the stage play. In 1989, Taiwan's first stage play with the February 28 Incident as the theme, Spring Breeze and Rain, was performed at the National Theater, and some people in the audience cried out loud. The playwright Chen Yuhui later recalled: "We didn't know how many people in the audience were the participants of that year."
These works provided a space for collective healing, making political literature an important channel for Taiwan society to face traumatic memories.
Body Liberation: Bold Writing from Gender to Desire
The Rise of Feminist Literature
Another major breakthrough brought by the lifting of martial law was the liberation of gender issues. Li Ang had already challenged the taboos of patriarchal society with The Killing of a Deer (1983) before the lifting of martial law, but the feminist literature wave only formed a scale after the lifting of martial law.
Liao Huiying's Oil Melon Seeds (1982) gained renewed attention after the lifting of martial law. This novel describing the fate of traditional Taiwanese women happened to echo the spirit of the times of the women's self-awareness movement after the lifting of martial law. The heroine A Xiang's sentence "I no longer want to be an oil melon seed" became the voice of countless Taiwanese women.
The gender writing of the new generation of writers was more radical. Hu Shuwen, Luo Yijun, and others who rose in the 1990s broke through boldly in language, directly describing the desire and loneliness of urban people. This was completely unimaginable before the lifting of martial law.
The Birth of Queer Literature
The most controversial literary breakthrough after the lifting of martial law was the publicization of queer writing. Zhu Tianwen's Handbook of a Handless Man (1994) wrote about Taipei urban life from the perspective of a male homosexual, winning the first prize of the first Times Literary Million Novel Award, shocking the literary world3.
The protagonist of the novel is an aesthete intellectual. In the 1990s, under the shadow of AIDS, the novel wrote about the desires, fears, and existential anxieties of homosexuals. Zhu Tianwen combined classical aesthetics with contemporary urban experience, creating a narrative style that was both beautiful and decadent4, pushing Taiwan literature's writing of desire to a new dimension.
But such breakthroughs came at a cost. Many conservative readers attacked the book as "morally corrupt," and some groups demanded a ban on the book. Zhu Tianwen said helplessly in an interview: "The freedom of literature actually needs to bear so much misunderstanding."
Linguistic Diversification: The Revival of Mother Tongue Literature
The Rebirth of Taiwanese Literature
Before the lifting of martial law, it was almost an impossible task to create works in Taiwanese. After the lifting of martial law, Taiwanese literature, which had been suppressed for decades, ushered in a period of revival.
Song Zelai was an important promoter of the revival of Taiwanese literature. His novel Daniuannan Village was written in Taiwanese Han characters, depicting the changes in rural society. Song Zelai wrote in Taiwanese while striving to establish the theoretical foundation of Taiwanese literature, laying an academic status for this long-marginalized genre.
Li Qiao started from the perspective of Hakka literature. His Cold Night Trilogy, although written in Chinese, retained a large amount of Hakka linguistic sense and cultural connotations. He has long advocated that language is the carrier of culture, and Taiwanese writers must tell their own stories in their own language.
The Awakening of Indigenous Literature
The most challenging linguistic experiment came from indigenous literature. After the lifting of martial law, indigenous writers such as Sun Dachuan, Wahis Noogan, and Xia Man Lanbao began to reinterpret their cultural traditions in Chinese.
Wahis Noogan's poetry collection Yineng Re-Explore (1992) re-examined Taiwan's history from the Atayal worldview. He wrote, "The sound of the river flows in my blood." This poetic expression allowed Han readers to feel the unique aesthetics of indigenous people for the first time.
Xia Man Lanbao's Myth of Badai Bay (1992) rewrote the life history of the tribe from the perspective of the Tao ocean, breaking the stereotypical expectation of Han people on indigenous literature as "suffering writing."
The dilemma faced by indigenous writers is: how to express non-Han cultural thinking within the framework of the Han language? This question continued to ferment throughout the 1990s, and only gradually formed diverse answer paths in the 21st century.
Urban Literature: New Sensibility of the Consumer Society
The Impact of Postmodern Trends
From the late 1980s to the early 1990s, Western postmodern theories were introduced in large quantities to Taiwan, profoundly affecting the literary creation of the younger generation5. Writers such as Zhang Dachun, Lin Yaode, and Huang Fan began to experiment with new writing forms.
Zhang Dachun's Four Joys Patriotism (1988) mixed detective novels, martial arts novels, and realistic politics together, creating a brand-new narrative style. This "collage" technique was deeply influenced by postmodern aesthetics, and also reflected the complexity of Taiwan society after the lifting of martial law.
Lin Yaode more directly proposed the concept of "urban literature," arguing that literature should respond to the new experiences brought by urbanization. His novel 1947 Goshuyu Lily captured the alienation of Taipei urban life with fast-paced narrative and fragmented images.
The Literary Reflection of Consumer Culture
After the lifting of martial law, Taiwan quickly entered a consumer society. Literary works began to reflect this new lifestyle. Yuan Qiongqiong's novels described the emotional dilemmas of the urban middle class, while Su Weizhen focused on the identity issues of women in a consumer society.
The common feature of these works is the focus on "small certainty happiness" — the grand narrative of big history receded, and the subtle feelings of personal life became the protagonist of literature. This literary orientation reflected the major change in Taiwan society from political supremacy to individualism.
But this shift also triggered controversy. Some critics believed that urban literature was too indulgent in personal feelings and lacked concern for social reality. This divergence is still an important topic in the Taiwan literary world today.
Commercialization of the Publishing Market: The Double-Edged Sword of Literature
The Dual Impact of Commercial Mechanisms
After the lifting of martial law, Taiwan's publishing industry quickly commercialized. On January 1, 1988, after the lifting of the newspaper ban, the number of newspapers increased from 29 to hundreds, and the supplement pages increased significantly, providing more space for literary creation.
At the same time, commercial publishers began to compete for excellent writers. Times Publishing established the "Times Literary Million Novel Award" in 1994, and high prize money attracted a large number of writers to participate. Zhu Tianwen's Handbook of a Handless Man was the winner of the first edition of this award3.
But commercialization also brought negative effects. Publishers, in order to cater to the market, preferred popular works that could be sold quickly. Pure literature writers began to feel survival pressure. Chen Yingzhen once sighed: "Literature has become a commodity, and writers have become producers. Is this progress or regression?"
The Establishment of the Literary Award System
In order to balance commerce and art, various literary award systems were established one after another after the lifting of martial law. The United Daily News Novel Award, the China Times Literary Award, the Taipei Literary Award, etc., supported the publication and review mechanisms of serious literature.
These awards established the criteria for judging literary value, and many writers who later became famous were discovered through literary awards.
But the award system also produced new problems: writers began to write for awards, and literary creation showed a certain "standardized" tendency. This is another contradiction in the development of Taiwan literature.
Eve of the Digital Age: Media Transformation in the 1990s
In the mid-1990s, the Internet emerged in Taiwan, and BBS sites became an informal field for literary publication. This instant, interactive writing method formed a preliminary impact on traditional supplement literature.
Literary magazines also experienced transformation. Literature Taiwan, Taiwan Literature, and other local literary magazines gained greater development space after the lifting of martial law. Wenxun magazine specialized in organizing literary dynamics, providing selection indexes and writer chronologies. In the late 1990s, some magazines faced distribution difficulties, and the trend of reader diversion was already brewing.
The full development of these transformations had to wait until the early 21st century.
Globalization Challenge: The International Vision of Taiwan Literature
The Large-Scale Introduction of Translated Literature
After the lifting of martial law, foreign literary works were introduced in large quantities to Taiwan. Japanese Haruki Murakami, Latin American Marquez, and Czech Kundera profoundly influenced the creative style of young Taiwanese writers.
This influence exists on two sides: on the one hand, it expanded the international vision of Taiwanese writers; on the other hand, it may also dilute the characteristics of local literature. Luo Yijun's works were obviously influenced by Latin American magical realism, but he successfully localized this technique.
The Beginning of the Translation of Taiwan Literature Outward
In the 1990s, Taiwan literature also began to go to the world. The government established the "Taiwan Literature Translation Project" to promote the English translation of excellent works. Bai Xianyong's Taipei People and Li Ang's The Killing of a Deer were successively translated into English.
But the challenge of translation lies in how to maintain the cultural characteristics of literary works. The transformation of Taiwan literature from "following the West" to "dialoguing with the world" would not be truly completed until the appearance of Wu Mingyi in the 21st century.
Controversy and Reflection
The Eternal Tug-of-War between Commerce and Art
The deepest controversy in Taiwan literature after the lifting of martial law is still the relationship between commerce and art. Supporters of marketization believe that commercial mechanisms have enhanced the social influence of literature; critics believe that excessive commercialization has damaged the purity of literature.
Yu Guangzhong once said: "Literature is not a stock, and its value cannot be measured by market price." But Hou Wenyong countered: "If there are no readers, what is the meaning of literature?" This divergence continues to this day.
The Balance between Localization and Internationalization
Another ongoing controversy is the balance between localization and internationalization. Extreme localists believe that they should create works entirely in Taiwanese, criticizing Chinese literature as "colonial literature"; internationalists believe that Chinese is the bridge for Taiwan literature to go to the world.
This controversy reflects the complexity of Taiwan literature's identity. Is Taiwan literature "Chinese literature in Taiwan" or "literature of Taiwanese people"? This question continued to be debated throughout the 1990s, and there is still no standard answer today.
Conclusion: The Literary Map Towards the Millennium
From the lifting of martial law on July 15, 1987, to the countdown to the millennium in Taiwan at the end of the 1990s, these thirteen years were the most explosive period in Taiwan literature. Political literature found its voice, female literature stood firm, indigenous literature regained the right to interpret themselves, and urban literature and postmodern trends reshaped the possibilities of language itself.
But the contradictions brought by the lifting of martial law never disappeared with it. Market pressure, linguistic divergence, identity tug-of-war — these are the deep-seated issues that Taiwan literature truly surfaced after opening up, which cannot be covered by the restrictions before the lifting of martial law.
After the millennium, the stage passed to new voices such as Wu Mingyi, Lin Yihan, and Gan Yaoming. But the foundation laid by these thirteen years after the lifting of martial law is the premise for everything that happened afterwards.
Further Reading
- Taiwan Roaming Record — Yang Shuangzi continues the tradition of female and lesbian writing after the lifting of martial law, using pseudo-translated novels to write the history of Japanese colonial rule, winning double international recognition in the 2024 NBA and 2026 Booker Prize
- Post-War Taiwan Literature — 42 years from silence, modernism, rural debate to female awakening during the 1945-1987 martial law period
- Contemporary Taiwan Literature — 21st Century: Wu Mingyi's internationalization, Lin Yihan, the next baton of digital literature
- History of Taiwan Literature — The overall context from the Dutch rule, Ming and Qing dynasties, Japanese rule, post-war to contemporary
- Lin Liang — Founder of the Republic of China Children's Literature Society in 1984 after the lifting of martial law, the founder of Taiwan children's literature, his column Look at Pictures and Speak accompanied generations of Taiwanese children
References
- Taiwan Provincial Martial Law Decree - Wikipedia — Records the entire process of the martial law decree promulgated in 1949 to its lifting on July 15, 1987, including legal basis, political context, and historical background of the martial law lifting declaration.↩
- Preface: N Ways of Censorship - Taiwan Literature Virtual Museum — Based on the memories of editors such as Peng Renjin, it organizes the various means of literary censorship during the martial law period (book cataloging, prohibition of publication, copyright seizure, etc.), which is core data for understanding the literary ecology before the lifting of martial law.↩
- vocus Square Book Review: Zhu Tianwen's Handbook of a Handless Man (1994) — A detailed book review records that Zhu Tianwen's Handbook of a Handless Man was completed on February 23, 1994, won the first prize of the first Times Literary Million Novel Award in the same year, the theme of male homosexuality, and its position in the history of Taiwan queer literature.↩
- Handbook of a Handless Man - Wikipedia — The entry details the narrative structure of Handbook of a Handless Man, the language style of the fusion of classical aesthetics and urban decadence, and its position in the history of gender writing in Taiwan literature.↩
- Rewriting Taiwan: Observations of 1980s Literature - Taiwan 80s — Curated by National Taipei University of Arts, it sorts out the literary landscape of Taiwan literature from the aftermath of the rural debate to the postmodern transformation in the 1980s, providing a snapshot of the literary ecology on the eve of the lifting of martial law, helping to understand the historical accumulation of the explosion after the lifting of martial law.↩